Case Study: Jefferson Health 2026 Achievement Award

Workforce Innovators Award | Large Division

From Instability to Impact: A System-Wide Nursing Workforce Transformation

The Goal

Nursing workforce instability was creating significant pressure across the system, with high vacancy rates, and reliance on premium pay labor driving up costs and affecting access to care. Baseline data showed more than 1,000 open RN roles and premium pay averaging $12.5 million per month. The team needed a more flexible, unified workforce strategy to support nurses, meet patient care needs, and reduce dependence on agency and incentive-based staffing.

The Intervention

More than 200 leaders and 300 nurses helped shape the strategy through listening sessions, forums, governance councils, and improvement events, ensuring it reflected the needs of frontline teams. Their input informed WorkforceONE, an integrated nursing strategy focused on flexibility, staffing stability, and nurse engagement.

The team built the S.E.A.L. RN Team as an internal flexible staffing resource, expanded virtual nursing to support bedside care, and strengthened talent pipelines through student partnerships and the Nurse Emeritus Program. A systemwide nursing governance model also gave nurses a stronger voice in decisions about staffing, wellbeing, professional development, and care delivery.

Results

The strategy stabilized the nursing workforce and reduced reliance on costly labor alternatives. The S.E.A.L. RN Team grew to more than 150 nurses, helping decrease premium pay labor by more than $6 million per month over two years. Nursing vacancies dropped significantly, and voluntary turnover continued to decline, showing that the system was building a more flexible, sustainable workforce model that better supports both nurses and patient care.

 

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Topics: Quality Initiatives, Workforce

Revision Date: 8/17/2026

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